Chester County commissioners prepare for 2013

WEST CHESTER – Ryan Costello and Kathi Cozzone, the new leadership duo of the Chester County commissioners, agree on several points.

They agree that there should be no sale of Pocopson Home anytime in the near future, but that changes in its services are necessary to shore up its financial foundation. They agree on the necessity of a new countywide radio system for emergency responders, although it will be among the most expensive non-building related capital projects of the past 20 years. And they believe in the benefits of “getting out of West Chester’ to meet with county constituents on their home turf.

But most of all, they agree on being agreeable.

In interviews last week, Costello, who was elected to serve as chairman of the three-member board of commissioners for 2013, succeeding Commissioner Terence Farrell, and Cozzone, who was reelected to the post of vice-chairwoman she has held the past two years, both spoke of the collegiality that has existed on the board during a period when very hard decisions had to be made about county policy and budgets.

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Costello and Cozzone, both of whom were elected to their posts unanimously, indicated that it would have been much more difficult to make the hard decisions they came to if there was the sort of infighting that marked past Chester County commissioners and has been present recently in Montgomery County, for example.

“The recent political landscape has, understandably, left many less than favorably impressed,” Costello said, speaking of the scene both locally and nationally.

“But I believe Chester County government has proven to be an excellent example of collaborative, productive government working in the best interests of taxpayers and families,” he said. “My experience over the past two years has been rewarding on account of the ‘teammates’ I’ve had the pleasure of working with in county government.

Cozzone said that despite her position as the lone Democrat on the board, she had been treated as an equal by her Republican colleagues, and that their “professional relationship” made confronting difficult issues such as cutting county staff or raising tax rates easier.

“It has been my colleagues’ and my goal to work together,” she said. “I said before that we can disagree without being disagreeable.”

In interviews about the prospects for the county in the coming years, both Costello and Cozzone said they did not see the possibility that Pocopson Home, the count’s long-term care facility that was the subject of management change discussions in 2012, would be sold to a private buyer or transferred to a non-profit organization.

That news should come as a relief to those who support the facility who feared its mission of providing quality care to low-income residents would fall by the wayside.

“At this point, I think the sensible path forward is to end discussion and to keep Pocopson essentially the way it is,” said Costello, speaking from his office in the county administration building on West Market Street. “That will let the public and people working and living there know that it will remain the way it is.”

“I’ve said before that I was not interested in selling it,” said Cozzone from her Uwchlan home. “There is tremendous support to keep it in the county, and to continue to provide those services that, for many people, are the last option they have.

Both said, however, that they were eager to pursue extra revenue streams that may be made available at Pocopson, such as short-term rehabilitation services. The extra revenue, they said, was necessary to offset current and possible future shortfalls at the home, which gets its main income from Medicare and Medicaid payments.

The largest item on the county’s agenda, at least financially, will be the purchase and installation of the new radio system, switching the county’s police, fire, and ambulance radios from analog to digital. A task force including members of the emergency community has urged the commissioners to approve the project, some saying that the system in place now is on its last legs.

The cost of the project is anticipated to be in the $40-$50 million range, spread out over a number of ears. Costello said that decision on the project will be coming quickly in the first two months of the year, but that ultimately the project will run into 2014.

“The most compelling answer on whether this is a necessary step comes from those who use the radios, who tell me that we are working on borrowed time,” Costello said. “This is not something we can continue to” put off.

Cozzone, who has been on the board longer than Costello, has seen the cost of the project trimmed down over the years by aggressive negotiations by county staff. But she agreed that now is the time for it to occur.

“This is very important and much needed,” she said.

Among the other successes that both Costello and Cozzone pointed to in the county in 2012 was a commissioners meeting that was held in the fall in West Brandywine.

The meeting brought county staff together with resident from the western end of the county to show off the various county efforts to benefit residents and organizations there. Where past attempts to bring the county meetings to local municipalities had failed to draw much attention, the meeting in West Brandywine was well attended and showcased a host of people and agencies involved in the community.

Costello, who remembers growing up in the northern end of the county and not understanding what role the county government played in the community, said the commissioners would hold perhaps a half-dozen future meetings outside the county seat of West Chester.

“The further away you get from West Chester, the less understanding of how county government is a real provider of services to people there is,” he said. “They more people can learn that we play and important part in their lives, that’s a good thing.”